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Me?
I always wonder....
What the hell is in the water?
I always teach people to look at the ROOT CAUSE of paint defect problems and when it comes to water spots on paint the root cause is whatever is in the water. Then I think whatever is in the water comes back to us....
I'm sorry I don't have a good answer outside of helping people to focus on the root cause. Meguiar's used to make their waxes sheet water off cars but after the Zaino vs NXT Wax Wars the corpoerate decision was made to make ALL their waxes bead water so all the "experts" would think the protection was "good" and "lasted a long time" even thought the Megs chemist state otherwise. I guess the root cause of the change in chemistry can be traced back to Guru Reports and "The Wax Test" those are the experts that caused Meguiar's to stop making waxes that sheet water.
Car Wax History
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I want to try the Sonax coating so I wonder how it does with rain water spotting.
RamAirV1
I would love to test out a hydrophilic based coating, just think of how easy it would be in a flooded coating market to think up an entire coating line geared around the idea of hard water spot reduction. Hydrophilic base coats, top coats, maintenance sprays, soaps etc. Gyeon Philic, Philic Pro+, Hydro-Philic, Anti-Bead, Gyeon Sheet. A whole product line thought up in 10 seconds offering something different, something unique, based around solving an issue for a significant coating/paint based problem.
I assume that behavior is the only way you could put up a reasonable case where we would see a reduction in hard water spotting. All of these other products that have mildly hydrophobic behaviors that we've categorized as "sheeting" based, I feel they hold no advantage in real world hard water spot reduction against more hydrophobic ones. I can't tell my sprinklers to get up closer to the paint so it floods the surface in a controlled manner to reduce the beading left behind. I'm left with a mess whether it's M21 or Zymol Carbon.
Hard water spotting damage is the single biggest issue I've found when working with coatings, one bad hit and you're forced to go with a top coat or risk the integrity of the base coating by going with a water spot remover, both solutions by which are not guaranteed to resolve hard water etching. I assume the reason we haven't seen a hydrophilic coating yet by a relatively known company is because there's significant trade-offs going with this type of behavior that outweigh the benefits of any potential spot reduction. But I feel if something works as advertised that solves an issue, we should be able to convince people to use it. But less or mildly hydrophobic products have never shown me an advantage in spot reduction in my environment.
This is all heresy coming from me BTW, you guys know I'm never leaving insane beading behind. :awesome:
There are a bunch of factors which mean that this may or may not be the case. For example, a very large number of sealant type products are excellent at repelling water but are in fact oleophillic. What this means is they repel water but oils stick. If you were to spray oil onto the paint, it would stick really well and give a true 'sheet'. In laymans terms that means that the finish repels water and attracts anything oily/greasy (i.e. soiling). There are lots of really hydrophobic coatings which claim to be self cleaning but are in fact very inclined to contamination with oily soiling (more so than without the product) and are also very hard to clean (hydrophobic - remember - water is repelled so it has a hard time wetting the soiling!). In an ideal world, you want a finish which is oleophobic (repels oils) yet hydrophillic (water sticks - sheets). This means that oils don't stick well and any which do are easily removed because water is attracted to the surface and can easily wet the oily soils. I do not believe such a thing exists! For now, a bit of oleophobicity is a good start - but when did you last see a detailing brand mention the term (never?!)?Interesting point and it make sense regarding the definition of 'sheeting'. I have always enjoyed reading and learning the know why from your posts. 1 observance between the 2 products however is the slickness. The more hydrophobic product tend to feel less slick so my first thought would be to assume that more contaminates will stay on the panel than the other. If all factors remain the same except the slickness, isnt the more hydrophobic product worst off than the other- counter intuitive than the general public perception that more bead is good.
Oh - slickness/roughness... whole other area again!
Since Mike bumped the thread here's a post from an old forum member who supposedly was a chemist.
I don't know who the guy was or why he stopped posting but I really enjoyed reading his posts.
In the days of products which would sheet more than bead, what was the indicator the LSP had worn out and needed to be re-applied? The speed of the sheeting?
Based on what I've read, if it beads water the potential is there for deposits to stay in those beads and then adhere to the paint as the water dries off.